Fulbright scholars are sent to places like Stanford University in California. Photo: AFP
Correction: This story has been updated with the latest information from Fulbright NZ.
A long-standing academic partnership between the US and New Zealand is in uncharted territory as it works through a Trump administration funding freeze.
The Fulbright NZ programme has been jointly funded by the New Zealand and US governments for more than 70 years and offered New Zealand students a life-changing chance to work and study at some of the world's top universities.
But a funding review in the US State Department resulted in temporary delays to the visa applications of Fulbright NZ grantees.
The Trump administration earlier this year issued a pause on funds for study abroad and international exchange in the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
Fulbright NZ was administered through ECA and was part of the wider Fulbright programme established in 1946 by US Senator J. William Fulbright.
According to the Fulbright NZ website, it operated in more than 155 countries, funding around 8,000 exchanges per year.
Fulbright NZ offered post-graduate grants, sending about 20 students and scholars to the US annually in a reciprocal arrangement.
The successful recipients chose their university once Fulbright NZ funding was secured, and were then supported by Fulbright NZ through their experience.
Fulbright NZ, which was based in Aotearoa, used a third party agency - the International Institute of Education - to take care of day to day operations for its recipients in the US, in line with how all Fulbright programmes were administered in the US.
But last month, IIE staff, including those who took care of the Fulbright programme, were furloughed.
Fulbright NZ executive director Penelope Borland said last week that had resulted in delays for New Zealanders in the US.
Among the delays were placements at universities and visa renewal processes.
But now Fulbright NZ said IIE staff had returned to work and key services, like visa processing, were coming back online.
It believed the programme was set to continue as normal and a month of uncertainty was coming to an end.
IIE referred questions about whether its staff had been reinstated and funding thawed to the US State Department.
RNZ contacted the State Department but was yet to receive a response.
At this stage, Fulbright NZ was still intending to send this year's recipients as planned, Borland said.
The US was the biggest market for Crimson Education, a New Zealand consultancy for overseas admissions.
Co-founder and chief executive, Jamie Beaton, said outside of Fulbright NZ, the loss of US State Department funding was almost irrelevant for the tertiary sector there.
"It affects very few total applicants, because the Fulbright NZ funds are not the aspirations of most scholars," he said.
Fulbright NZ only offered post-graduate grants, but most people that enquired with his company were undergraduates and high school leavers, Beaton said.
"There are so many scholarships available, many of which are [funded] from private benefactors, many of which are funded by the universities directly - and the universities have massive endowments.
"They're way bigger than any other country. Harvard has a $50b USD endowment, Stanford has $30b USD plus," Beaton said.
Universities New Zealand confirmed to RNZ it was not aware of any of its programmes being affected by the pause.
Beaton's message to those seeking advice from his company was not to sweat it.
"It takes several years for prepare for an admission to America, then the degree itself for undergrads is four years long. By the time you're in the workforce, it's six to eight years from the age you are today.
"At the fastest, it would take two or three years, and even then Trump will already be leaving office," Beaton said.
"Don't worry about it. The US still has a strong economy and the highest ranked universities [in the world]," he said.
